Wednesday, November 15, 2006
WEATHER GOD
November 15, 2006—Australians will always remember it as Al Gore Day, when the magical environmentalist delivered unto us an historic coldening, just as he did in New York two years ago. Behold the Gore Effect:
Ski resort operators gazed at the snow in amazement. Parents took children out of school and headed for the mountains. Cricketers scurried from the MCG amid bullets of hail as Melburnians traded lunchtime tales of the incredible cold.
Yesterday, Antarctic winds produced snow across Victoria at levels as low as 400 metres, just two weeks before summer.
Chillmaster Al turned this sunburnt country into a winter wonderland:
Rejoice in Al’s reversal of global warming:
Further images here. Not everybody enjoyed Gore Day; a friend of mine, a usually mildly-spoken young mother of two, told me yesterday from Melbourne that her “f—-in’ toes turned blue” after an underdressed outdoor excursion. The Gore Effect was just as pronounced in Sydney, where Al appeared on morning television between snow-laden weather reports:
A goosepimply, teeth-chattering Sydney has another reason to shake its collective head at the weather gods today.
This morning’s recorded low temperature of 8.3 degrees is the coldest November minimum in more than a century.
Not since 1905 has a November day experienced such chill.
Please record your Gore Effect experiences in comments, before the inevitable loss of fingers due to frostbite.
UPDATE. The Effect spreads:
Snow has fallen in southern Queensland ...
The Bureau of Meteorology says the last time snow or sleet was reported this late in the year was in early October 1941.